200 Chapter 5 cacy bolsters organizational resilience.38 This was exemplified as the CCP group and other COVID-19 teams in Sanquin showed that multidisciplinary teams working on a problem early on with sufficient freedom proved to be highly creative and effective. Hence, for times of non-crises, this could translate into improvement or innovation teams working on dedicated topics throughout the organization. These groups would be comprised of key persons throughout the organization not only chosen for their specific function but also for knowledge and ability to bring change internally (“innovators”). This was initiated in Sanquin, such as an improvement team for Sanquin’s IT infrastructure and digitalization services. Furthermore, some of the COVID-19 teams have remained together to continue regular meetings, which could be advantageous for budding ideas. Lastly, a BE could consider how “experimentation” (usually linked to research) can occur outside of the Research/Innovation Department to allow for innovation to occur in other departments. This could also be linked to improvisational training as previously mentioned. Overall, management would need to provide adequate support and resources to enable these efforts to be successful. Many BEs worldwide undertook CCP and most likely deployed improvisational techniques described here (see two detailed articles of implementation from the United States39,40). However, in quickly assessing CCP studies, only three briefly mention the importance of “teamwork”3,6,11; hence, this study is unique in being one of the first to explore this topic within Transfusion Medicine. Strengths of this study include its in-depth look at one group’s experiences of team improvisation and its contribution towards organizational resilience during a crisis. Weaknesses of this study include the group’s dynamics, organizational context, and even pandemic situation being confined to the Netherlands only and may not be applicable to other CCP groups in diverse settings. 5.5 Conclusion As BEs are continuously subject to changes in technology and society, cost pressures, and disruptive events, they are increasingly understanding the need to adapt from “traditionally run” organizations to be able to survive into the foreseeable future. Team improvisation is an important element in doing so as improvisation drives innovation which strengthens organizational resilience, and subsequently, healthcare system resilience in which BEs are embedded in.22,38
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